Well, it's better than what IDW retroactively named their reprints of the Devil's Due GI Joe series once they started their own continuation of the Marvel run. "GI Joe: Disavowed".

I dunno, I know the 120 or so issues Mirage put out after this straight up ignored it, so it does seem like the best possible title. Even if the conclusion issues makes it compatible, it's still going to be a "let's never speak of this again" deal.

Anyway, I'm gonna ask Bobby when this is coming out, can't see it in the article.

I can hear it now: "I'm sorry little April, I told you that if you didn't take good care of them I'd be taking them away. Now they are going to the lab to be abused for experimentation" (You could almost rewrite this as April caused the fire to get back at her father over it...)

On the subject of Urban Legends, I'll be picking it up issue by issue. This is the kind of thing I want to support, so I'll throw my $4 down a month.

I didn't buy the Color Classics issues because they didn't really offer anything that interested me and there wasn't really any pay-off for supporting the reprints (didn't care much for the colors, either). With Urban Legends, there's much more reward, with rare material getting reprinted for the first time and the promise of 3 new issues waiting at the end of it. The colors I could take or leave, but since I already own all the black and white versions, I'll consider them a bonus (hopefully more care is taken with them than the colors for the Vol. 1 Color Classics).

As for the New Conclusion vs. the Old Conclusion, I don't even see it as a "vs." thing. Andrew's conclusion attacked it from a unique angle, endeavoring to tie the Image series back in with the Mirage continuity. From the sound of things, IDW's conclusion is just going to be the Image series continuing on as if it hadn't been abruptly cancelled, doing its own thing. Both are unique approaches and can be appreciated on their own merits as splinter timelines.

It'll be nice to get a proper end to the Image series since I don't consider any fan works to be official in any way shape or form whatsoever. It'll be nice to have a real conclusion. I'll be picking it up monthly to support it and getting the collections.

I’ve only read Mirage, Adventures and IDW. I sadly never read these back in the day. I had a deprived upbringing. My small lame town had zero comic book stores, no 7/11 stores and not even a Blockbuster video.

I’m really excited for the new release! I’ve been thinking about getting the back issues for awhile now but every time I look the prices are crazy. Like over $200 to complete the run. And the condition is questionable. I hope no errors are made in these reprints. I am curious if any extra content will be included. I can now get all the issues in mint condition at half the price.

Image is an obscure series. It ran from 1997-1999 when the TMNT fad was pretty much dead and buried and all the original fans were now teenagers or had moved on from the franchise. Since the series itself was very violent, in black and white, had all red bandanas, etc. most younger fans didn't get into it at the time and Mirage fans were probably put off by the Turtles mutilations.

The late 90's was also a time before people got nostalgic about old franchises, it isn't like the 2000's when old franchises were suddenly receiving a "nostalgic revival" and people started thinking about old stuff.

Also keep in mind the late 90's is when the internet was still in its infancy, there was no social media, news sites barely mentioned the Image comics, it came out at a time where nobody knew what was going on. I picked up several Image comics myself when it came out, but even then I wasn't able to read it in full till the early 2000's.

As a youngster, I remember the "bite" this series seemed to have compared to the cartoon/movies, but even to Mirage a bit.
They seemed like the perfect TMNT for my older cousin, who always insisted at least one of the turtles had to die gruesomely while we roleplayed in the backyard, to which I would usually negotiate one of them be captured or lose a limb instead. I guess I was a squeamish little boy.

Even so, I loved the books and didn't shy away from them. They were just a little different, and while I didn't fully understand how all the pieces of the franchise fit together, given my young age and lack of internet, I never considered it a problem, even if it was a bit confusing.

If something from the Image or Mirage comics seemed different from the cartoon or the movies I was first accustomed to, it was just all the more fascinating. It was also something I could grow into and find myself appreciating more as I aged into my teens and left the cartoons behind for the most part.